The Owl Cries

The owl stared at me, the owl talked to me as well. All it would say to me though was “who?”

“Who?” i asked quizzically

“Who.” The owl replied solemnly, unblinking.

“I don’t understa-”

“WHO” the owl interrupted with piercing eyes.

“Oh, i am mike, born Michael. Who are you?”

It blinked and cocked its head to the side, it never answered my questions. It didn’t need to though, i knew perfectly well what it meant, and it was nothing...nothing that I had a word for.

The owl sat on my windowsill just like it had every night since i met the owl. A creature of few words and fewer answers. I fell asleep under its constant gaze. When i awoke in the morning, my pillow was drenched, i must have been crying again. The morning showed no sign of the owl as usual, i would see him soon though...just like usual. The owl sat in a tree adjacent to the window in the washroom and peering in. I was used to the owl now, but i was not always. The owl appeared in my life suddenly years ago and had become a fixture of my day to day life ever since. I thought it was a dream, it had to be, but as night and night passed by, i knew the owl was real, i touched the owl once.

The first time i ever saw the owl and knew the owl was real, i was high. I had seen the owl before, but never in a memory that didn’t seem like i had just woken up or just fallen asleep. This time was different; i could see the owls’ details. Previously whenever i woke up i knew no details about the owls’ appearance. That time i could see its huge bulging eyes, the way its chest puffed in and out, and how the owl never seemed to blink. The owl stepped off my window sill for the first time in any of my dreams, or what i thought of as hallucinations.  The owl walked towards me and held out its limb like it wanted to shake hands, and that’s exactly what i tried to do. It leapt back onto the window sill and shrieked in my head, no one heard it but me. I never tried to touch the owl again physically.

Long term aquantaince generally know something about each other, but as far as i could tell neither myself nor the owl knew anything about each other. The owl reminded me of a child in a zoo staring curiously at something he does now quite comprehend. I finished my shower to the uncaring eyes of the owl. I brushed my teeth to them at my cereal to them. I did a lot of things in front of those eyes. I knew the owl could read my mind, and i used this to my own amusement. Sometimes while doing boring menial tasks like cleaning i would scream as loud as i could in my head, the owl didn’t like the sudden burst of noise, the owl even fell off a tree once. Today was just a normal day though. The owl watched as i rid the bus, as i slept in class and dreamed of pain.

That night the owl was there again, simply biding time until the inevitable and pointless interrogation. Around 3 am the owl chirped up.

“Who?”

“I am Michael.”

“WHO!”

Out of nowhere the owl leapt into my bedroom and grabbed my arm in his talons. I tried to resist but the immense power of the wings dragging me through the window was too much. Little by little i began to be pulled out and through my window. Once in the air, the owl easily lifted me in flight directly above us. Alight that seemed too bright to see shone through the clouds. Higher and higher i was lifted until i began to soar upwards through the thick clouds, until eventually we broke out of the cloud embankment. I strained my neck upwards saw above me a giant rotating, flashing, and noiseless unidentifiable flying object. I kept flying higher until the owl pulled me in through a hatch in the bottom of the craft.